The 1 Malaysia charade has ended — Ali Kadir

Published: 19 February 2012 6:00 PM

FEB 19 — Today is the day that the charade of 1 Malaysia has finally come to an end. Thank you, Najib Razak for finally showing some honesty and playing the race card and in doing so, burying the notion that you actually were supportive of a country where race and religion were becoming less important.

It is a fact of life that we discover much about ourselves, our friends and our leaders when the going gets tough and challenges abound.

So it is with Najib today. It is a fair conclusion that with the National Feedlot Centre scandal, the civil service salary fiasco and continuing antipathy towards Umno, he is feeling some pressure with the general elections coming up. In this type of back-against-the-wall situation, I would have hoped that Najib would have resisted the temptation to play the race and religious cards.

But like I said you know a person's mettle in tough times and Najib sadly went down the road of the typical Umno politician. Speaking at a gathering today, he said that a vote for PAS is a vote for DAP.

I have been around long enough to decipher what Najib means: a vote for Malay (PAS) is a vote for DAP (Chinese). This has been the attack line of Utusan Malaysia.

I find this line of thinking offensive because it is this divide and rule system which has made our polarisation problem serious. It is also offensive because if our so-called leaders are racists or closet racists can you imagine what kind of policies the government will enact?

When a leader goes down this road and demonises one race, it is a green light for others to embrace stereotypes.

Najib warns Malays that a vote for PAS is a vote for DAP and Chua Soi Lek warns Chinese that a vote for DAP is a vote for PAS.

I am thankful that Najib and Chua have finally stopped this wayang about 1 Malaysia.

* Ali Kadir reads The Malaysian Insider.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.

Please note that you must sign up with disqus.com before commenting. And, please refrain from comments of a racist, sexist, personal, vulgar or derogatory nature and note that comments can be edited, rewritten for clarity or to avoid questionable issues. As comments are moderated, they may not appear immediately or even on the same day you posted them. We also reserve the right to delete off-topic comments